Culture of Corruption: Dem report: GOP ties to lobbyists have cost millions for Americans

A Democratic report by ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee Louise Slaughter (D-NY) declares that Republican ties to lobbyists have cost millions of Americans basic social services, RAW STORY has learned. The report, available here, blames lawmakers' ties to lobbyists -- who, they say, make an average of $650,000 a year.

"Contractors and corporations have purchased access to a government that is supposed to belong to the people," the Democrats write. The report's bullet points follow. The report delivers a smackdown on major Democratic campaign themes while delicately omitting names: "a corrupt politician who lives on a yacht" (Duke Cunningham, (R-CA), who resigned), "three mysterious Russian industrialists who laundered $1 million to a prominent political leader" (Tom DeLay (R-TX) and "a radical religious anti-gambling activist on the take from the gaming industry" (Ralph Reed).

A Slaughter aide said they would not be taking the report to the House Ethics Committee. What Democrats call a "Culture of Corruption" is the centerpiece of their 2006 plan to increase their ranks in the House and Senate. Ron Bonjean, the spokesman for Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL), did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.

14.2 million American seniors (including millions of our sickest and most vulnerable seniors) are stuck in a complicated, expensive, and inefficient Medicare prescription drug program because the Republican Congress and the Bush Administration allowed lobbyists from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to design this program.

*60 million American families who heat their homes with natural gas and 8 million families who heat with heating oil are paying higher bills this winter, even though the Republican Congress recently passed their "national energy plan" into law. Although this plan gives the energy industry billions in new tax breaks and subsidies, it doesn't lower prices for consumers or make our country more energy independent.

*The 150,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in Iraq may not have the equipment they need because of waste, fraud and cronyism by the Republican Congress and the Department of Defense. While Halliburton and other companies with Republican connections get their contracts, our soldiers still don't have the body armor and armored vehicles they need to fight the war.

*750,000 households in the Gulf region are still displaced today, more than 5 months after Hurricane Katrina hit that region, at least in part because the political hacks the Bush Administration put in charge of crucial homeland security functions were not adequately prepared to prepare for or respond to this disaster.

*More than 10 million students and their families will have larger student loans to repay because House Republicans, led by new Majority Leader John Boehner working hand-in-hand with his commercial loan industry allies, cut $12 billion from the student loan program in the recent reconciliation bill and shifted the costs on to students and their families.